While it has been a poorly kept secret for the past few months (especially concerning the returning players), the cast of the upcoming season – Survivor Caramoan – has been revealed yesterday. I have had much time to look at the newbies yet. I’ll do that in the next few days. So right now, let’s see an overview of the “Favorites“.

Some people on the web complain that this tribe of returning players is no All-Stars, and indeed they’re not. Some people even say that they’re not really favorites. It’s true in a sense. However, I think they’re a very interesting cast, and except for a few, I’m very happy to see them play again.

What is very interesting about this group of people is that none of them (except maybe for Malcolm ?) were great players – or even good players for some. For a while I even thought the theme of the season was going to be “second chances” as almost all of them screwed up one way or the other. I’m still even a bit afraid that they’ll bring “redemption island” back, as a lot of them need “Survivor redemption.”

I find that interesting because, let’s admit it, as great as Micronesia, the original Fans Vs Favorites was, the “Fans” never stood a chance against one of the most strategic tribes ever.

This season, the playing field is a bit more fair to the Fans, although the Favorites still have the still huge advantage of… well, being returning players and knowing what to expect in terms of survival as well as game play. That being said, I have the feeling that this tribe will be highly dysfunctional, even though we’ve seen many highly dysfunctional tribes dominate the game.

In the next few days, I’ll try to write a (short) post for each one of them, analyzing and speculating about their strengths, weaknesses and chances to win.

In the meantime, just like every other season, I try to follow the contestants on every social media possible during their season (even if I’m not sure my Twitter stream can survive Corinne, Phillip and Brandon at the same time), so I’d be selfish not to share their accounts with you so that you can stalk follow and communicate with them too. Note that for some reason, Survivor contestants are mostly active on Twitter, not always so much elsewhere.

Brandon Hantz: @brandonhantz (follow at your own risk, a glimpse into the real life of that kid is even scarier than what we’ve seen on TV so far, and apparently he’s BFF with his uncle again, how surprising, just before he returns to TV), his public page on Facebook.

Dawn Meehan: @meehand (the only past contestant who follows me on Twitter, if this is not proof she’s not a real fan of the show, what is? 😉 ), her blog (where she talks about Survivor at times, although I suspect that she won’t this season), her Facebook page.